The World Bank (WB) and its UN partners on Tuesday released a handbook on climate resilient cities in Vietnam. Hanoi has been chosen to pilot a project to support mitigation, management and adaptation of natural disaster risks.

has recently begun to suffer unusual climate phenomena.

The handbook is the brainchild of the WB’s Division for Sustainable Development in East Asia and Pacific Region and the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ ISDR).

Ms. Federica Ranghieri, WB environmentalist and author of the book, said that her handbook aims to inform local policy-makers of climate change and its impacts as well as help them assess risks so that they can work out and implement a system of actions to cope with natural disasters.

The handbook, which has been made public in some East Asian cities, is based on two criteria: riskiness and capacity to implement projects on natural disaster mitigation.

According to Ms. Ranghieri, most of cities in Vietnam have been impacted by climate change and faced more challenges than other countries.

As Vietnam has many coastal cities located in low-land areas, sea rise may be a great threat. Even such land-locked cities like Hanoi have begun to suffer unusual climate phenomena (flood, rainfall and temperature changes) and will face more impacts in the years to come.

After successful trial in Hanoi, the project on climate resilient city will be popularized across Vietnam.

The Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that, over the past five decades, in Vietnam, the mean temperature has increased about 0.7⁰C. The rainfall reducing during dry seasons and increasing during rainy ones, has led to more frequent droughts and floods.

It is predicted that if the sea level rises by 1m, 10% of Vietnam’s population will be directly affected and the country’s GDP drops by 10%.

Scientists said that, although discharging a low level of emission, about 0.4% of the world, Vietnam will continue to use a lot of fossil fuels that cause greenhouse effect.

VietNamNet/CP